Bridlington's 'dental desert' to be tackled by new recovery plan welcomed by East Yorkshire MP Sir Greg Knight

Bridlington has been described as ‘dental deserts’ with people struggling to book appointments for treatment.

The plan will see over 2.5 million additional NHS treatments delivered for patients over the next 12 months, alongside measures to improve the nation’s oral health including expanding preventative care for younger children to help reduce tooth decay.

Sir Greg, who has met with health ministers a number of times about the urgent need to provide greater NHS dentist provision in the East Riding, said: “This announcement will provide around one million new patients access to NHS dental treatment, including many in the East Riding who previously have been unable to access dental care.

“People will soon be able to see which practices in their area are accepting new patients via the NHS website and, from later this year, up to 240 dentists will be offered £20,000 to stay and deliver NHS care for at least three years in areas where recruitment and retention of dentists is difficult.

“For areas with no local dentist practice, a new NHS mobile dental service will be available for communities in under-served areas, with the first units up and running later this year”.

“I welcome this announcement which is good news particularly for rural and coastal areas and we now need to ensure that there is a speedy and effective roll-out of these proposals."